Jones: Defensive evolution to change game

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: England coach Eddie Jones believes the evolution of defensive structures will play a key role in the build-up to the 2019 World Cup.

Jones, speaking at the England training camp in Brighton ahead of the 2018 Six Nations, said England will aim to be at the forefront of any changes in the game.

He added the squad must be flexible during matches for different challenges in preparation for the World Cup in Japan next year.

"The game is evolving," he said.

"I think defence is going to evolve over the next 24 months, as sides have defended in a certain way and I think that's going to change because of law interpretation changes, and we want to be at the head of that queue of how you want to defend.

"In attack, that will be a consequence of defence changing that you'll need to be able to attack in a number of ways.

"Knowing the variants of environments we could find in Japan where our first two games are under a dome, so they're going to be almost perfect conditions, and generally in those sort of conditions a kicking game is important and a running game is important, and that seems contradictory but it's not.

"Then at Yokohama and Tokyo we could be playing in pouring rain and then your short game becomes important, and the ability to punch holes and play through them, so developing that adaptability and awareness of how to attack depending on the conditions is so important for us."